Education, From The Capitol To The Classroom

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Stories about educators: How are those responsible for implementing education policy in schools − from classroom teachers, to district administrators, to school board members − affected by changes at the top? And how well do they meet their challenge of reaching students with varying abilities and needs?

Stories about school assessment: With an increased push for 'accountability' in schools, what can test scores tell us about teacher effectiveness and student learning − and what can't they tell us? What does the data say about how schools at all levels are performing?

Stories about government influence: Who are the people and groups most instrumental in crafting education policy? What are their priorities and agendas? And how do they work together when they disagree?

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Why More Teachers Are Getting Advanced Degrees From Online Schools

August 10, 2012 | 11:37 AM

Western Governors University has its headquarters in Salt Lake City. About a third of the school's students in Indiana are enrolled in the teachers college.

A decade ago, the University of Phoenix awarded 72 online education degrees. In ten years, that number skyrocketed to 5,976. Western Governors University didn’t award any education degrees in 2001. Last year, the online university — based in Utah but with a state school here in Indiana — awarded nearly 2,000.

By contrast, Arizona State University, one of the USA’s largest traditional education schools, awarded 2,075 degrees, most of them on campus. Columbia University’s Teachers College awarded 1,345 degrees.

Traditional colleges still produce most of the bachelor’s degrees in teaching — ASU topped the list with 979 bachelor’s degrees in 2011. But online schools such as Phoenix and Walden University awarded thousands more master’s degrees than even the top traditional schools, all of which are pushing to offer online coursework. Every one of the top 10 now offers an online education credential.

Many online schools are fully accredited and offer flexibility that brick-and-mortar universities can’t. Allison Barber, chancellor of the non-profit Western Governors University Indiana, told StateImpact in June that students seeking teaching degrees online have to complete the same requirements as their peers in more traditional programs.

“Everything that can be online is online, but when you need student teaching, you need to go into the classroom,” says Barber. “Our students still go into the classroom.”

What should really be troubling the public is not how teachers are earning these advanced degrees, but the fact that they are being encouraged to do so at all. Time and time again, research has shown that master’s degrees in education, whether earned online or on campus, have absolutely no impact on how well teachers teach. Why not use the money spent incentivizing teachers to get these degrees to pay effective teachers more?